A 30-year-old Antelope Valley man has sued a local McDonald's, alleging he was ridiculed and denied service by an employee because he is gay. The alleged incident took place on the morning of May 23 when Matt Rosenberg went to the restaurant at 2427 Avenue S East in Palmdale with his mother and young niece.

McDonald's Corp. has turned up the heat in the fast-food business. If franchisees go along with the plan, the world's largest restaurant chain will launch its biggest nationwide promotion ever, featuring 55-cent sandwiches, down from about $1.95 for a Big Mac, according to franchisee sources Wednesday. The plan is a bold step to lure customers into McDonald's restaurants in the face of intense competition in the nation's $100-billion fast-food business, analysts said.

Hungary's second McDonald's fast food restaurant opened today in an airy railroad station which was constructed by the company that built the Eiffel Tower. "Without exaggeration I can say it is the most beautiful McDonald's in Europe," said Endre Fazekas, managing director of the U.S.-Hungarian joint venture responsible for Big Macs in Hungary. Hungary's first McDonald's restaurant, the first in any Warsaw Pact country, was opened in central Budapest two years ago.

KIDS VERSUS CARS: Burbank has extended its moratorium on drive-through restaurants until next summer, and caught in the middle is safety at a McDonald's playground. The San Fernando Road restaurant applied to enclose the area but was turned down because drive-ins aren't allowed to build anything anymore. The City Council says it will make an exception.

Along with the Big Macs and fries, a McDonald's restaurant here is offering a new kind of shake: rides on McThriller, a high-tech attraction opening today. The 14-seat ride simulates 10 adventures, among them speeding down a city street on a motorcycle, gliding above the countryside in an ultra-light aircraft and making a bobsled run. The ride, which costs $2.50, lasts between 2 1/2 and 3 minutes.

Lt. William Hall holds one of the most powerful, and sensitive, jobs in the Los Angeles Police Department: investigating officers who have killed or wounded citizens. As head of the LAPD's officer-involved shooting team, Hall is called upon to expose his fellow cops to the harsh, often unforgiving, glare of public scrutiny. Now, however, it is Hall who stands in the beam of an unflattering spotlight.

Taco Bell Corp., the company that's synonymous with Mexican-style fast food, might be crossing back over the border and adding French fries to its menu. Taco Bell declined to comment on reports that it has been testing French fries at some locations and that it has already developed a television commercial touting fries. Taco Bell spokeswoman Amy Sherwood said only that French fries are "one of a number of ideas we're looking at to provide value to our customers."

Victoria Montemayor was a 17-year-old manager trainee in 1984 when police barred her from entering her job at a McDonald's here where a crazed gunman was killing her co-workers and their customers. Brushing tears from her cheeks, Montemayor, now 24, moved her camera Thursday through a crowd of 200 people outside Southwestern College for the dedication of a long-awaited monument to the slain. A student journalist at Southwestern College, she was assigned to cover the event.

At the age of 10, Douglas Eric Girard was arrested for stealing a coop full of pigeons from the roof of a fish market. Like the birds he filched, his criminal career never quite took off. "I guess it's true, crime does not pay," he recently told a probation officer, noting that he has "made enough money to get by but not to get rich."